Here’s the first piece I could find on preparation for the ASU game. Strategery included.

… Last year, Stanford’s defense threw the kitchen sink at ASU, blitzing frequently, and the tactic was copied by Sun Devil opponents for the rest of the season. Now, Erickson will likely have to counter a defensive tactic that worked for UNLV.

With quarterback Rudy Carpenter throwing for 733 yards in ASU’s first two games, UNLV sat back in a two-deep zone and dared the Sun Devils to beat them with the run.

Kyle Williams had three catches for 115 yards, but Chris McGaha, Michael Jones and Kerry Taylor combined for just 56 yards on five receptions. ASU rushed for a respectable 131 yards but had few difference-making gains, and run calls late in regulation and in overtime were booed by some in the Sun Devil Stadium crowd.

Willie Martinez lives!

Meanwhile, local sports radio mogul Steak Shapiro is so impressed with A. J. Green that he misspelled the receiver’s name. Twice. In fairness, it did take two sentences.

AJ Greene showed me more in his three catches in the win over South Carolina than almost any Georgia receiver in the last decade, yes that includes Terrence Edwards, Reggie Brown and Fred Gibson. This guy is a total playmaker and if the Dawgs make a real run at the national title get ready for Greene to become a household name to college football fans…

It’s just week three, and several conference schools have only played twice so far, so you don’t want to read too much into the conference statistics, but there are still a couple of items worth taking note of in the current SEC statistical rankings if you’re a Georgia fan.

On the plus side, the Dawgs are a perfect 10 for 10 in red zone offensive production, even taking into account their struggles in Columbia. That’s tops in the conference. It’s been a hallmark under Bobo, as Georgia finished second in ’07 in that category.

The negative stuff is no surprise: Georgia ranks dead last in kickoff coverage and penalties. With regard to the latter, it’s even worse than you might expect, as Georgia is also tenth in opponent penalties. The net effect is that the Dawgs are giving their opponents a net of almost fifty yards per game from penalties. That’s the kind of thing that winds up costing a team a game at some point in time.

The most eye catching stat in the conference right now doesn’t belong to Georgia, though. Auburn has allowed its opponents to convert three out of forty six third down opportunities. That’s a 6.5% conversion rate. I don’t care who you’ve played, that’s an incredible number. The next best percentage nationally is three times that.

It’s probably a by-product of many journalists being of the MTV generation, but I’m taken by the short attention span and the readiness to draw final conclusions about the 2008 season displayed by the punditry class after last weekend’s games. Sure, it’s the pundit’s job to opine, and it’s not like there wasn’t plenty to comment on – the Mountain West’s domination of the Pac-10, Chase Daniel’s incredible performance level and Southern Cal’s inexperienced offensive line not missing a beat were all noteworthy – but the way a lot of the media has raced to wrap up a regular season that has only been on display for three weeks’ worth of games is a bit staggering.

I’m a homer, so some of my displeasure started with this hit job on Georgia by CBSSports.com’s Gregg Doyel. I don’t have a problem with Georgia dropping in the polls this week because of the way the games played out in Columbia and Los Angeles, but to argue that, as Doyel does, Georgia’s lofty preseason ranking is a mistake because Moreno and Stafford didn’t play as well in the fourth quarter as he thought they should have is silly. No team should be judged that broadly from such a narrow perspective.

CFN’s Richard Cirminello thinks the Mountain West, based on one admittedly terrific weekend, has passed the Big East and ought to start lobbying for that conference’s automatic BCS berth.

On the local level, it’s all about Georgia dropping to third in the national polls and style points. The AJ-C’s Chip Towers frets at his blog and in a story. Pretty much every media outlet in the state follows the same line, so it’s not just the usual trolling for traffic story the Atlanta paper so often indulges itself with.

On one level, I wouldn’t be surprised if Richt is somewhat amused by this, but on another, you have to wonder if he’s worried that it might become a distraction for his players. From Towers’ blog post, we have this Q & A exchange:

Q: Are you concerned your players may feel the need to earn style points during games?

Richt: “They better worry about winning.”

Q: Has all the poll talk been a distraction in the locker room?

Richt: “It’s not been that bad in the locker room. It’s been harder outside the locker room with fans,” Richt said. “Like I told the team, the preseason polls are just kind of an arbitrary stab in the dark. As the season rolls on, everybody has a better idea who they want to vote for. There’s still an awful lot of football to be played. Our goal is just to continue to win.”

How novel. Richt’s a coach who sees style points in grinding out wins over the course of a season. You wonder if the media will catch up to his point of view as this season progresses, given Georgia’s schedule (which, even though it took a slight hit this past weekend, still looks more formidable than any other national title contender’s right now).

Do any of these pundits remember the early game last year that was seen as season defining? Florida 59, Tennessee 20. That one sure told us a lot about how things would wind up. Relax, guys. Let the game come to you.

Quote Of The Day

“The only thing he’s promised me is he’s going to play the best player and that’s the only promise I want,” (Justin) Fields said in an interview on WSB-TV. “I just feel like I bring another aspect to the game with my legs. They’re both great quarterbacks. Of course, they were five-stars in high school. They’re just like me, but I just feel like I bring something different to the table with my ability to run the ball. I always like a challenge, I always like competition. I feel like competition isn’t going to do anything but make another person better. I’m not afraid of a challenge.”– AB-H, 10/11/17